Elon Musk Will Bring Free Internet To The Whole World

Elon Musk is behind the SpaceX rocket company, and he has been talking about plans for the launch of a Spanish radar satellite on top of one of their rockets.

If things go to plan the Paz satellite aims to watch over the oceans around the globe for ship traffic. However, there is also another payload heading up into space, and this is two smaller satellites that are a part of the plan of Musk to bring high-speed internet cover to everyone on Earth.

Starlink Project Will See 4,425 Broadband-Internet Satellites Sent Into Space Eventually

The project is Starlink, and the scale of it is incredible. In the years to come, Musk is hoping to launch 4,425 broadband-internet satellites that will be interlinked into space where they will orbit about 700 to 800 miles above Earth. He also plans on sending 7,500 spacecraft into lower orbit. In total, this is almost 12,000 satellites, which is double the amount of satellites that have been launched in history.

SpaceX did not give much away about their plans since they unveiled them in 2015. Despite this public documents have been revealed on a regular basis quietly due to the fact that Musk needs the Federal Communications Commission approval. The FCC documents were made public, and in November SpaceX was given permission for the launch of Microsat-2a and Microsat-2b, two experimental spacecraft so that the company could test out their space-based internet.

Mission Was Postponed a Day Due To Wind-shear

The mission is setting off from the Vandenberg Air Force Base at 9: 17 am ET on the Falcon 9 rocket, and this is a day later than what had been originally planned. On Wednesday SpaceX was concerned about the weather due to the high winds that would have messed around with the steering of the rocket, so it was postponed until Thursday. Musk said in a Tweet that the high altitude wind-shear had exceeded the 2% load. He said that this was only a small amount but that it was better to be safe and the launch would be postponed.

SpaceX is in part using a reusable first stage rocket booster that they had used in August and recovered. However, SpaceX did say that they were not going to try to recover Falcon 9s first stage following the launch. The Paz satellite should be deployed around 11 minutes following the launch, but there was nothing said about the time frame of the smaller satellites.

There is going to be a live video feed that starts 15 minutes before the launch is due, which should begin about 9 am ET on Thursday.